Trump – Netanyahu Summit in Florida

Donald Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday, July 26, in their first private meeting in nearly four years.

Netanyahu and Trump last met in September 2020 at a White House signing ceremony for an agreement brokered by the Trump administration, in which “the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel” in order to ease tensions and, above all, expand economic ties between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors.

The Mar-a-Lago meeting should allow Trump and Netanyahu to rectify relations and restore the political alliance. Trump broke with Netanyahu in early 2021 after the Israeli prime minister was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Biden on his presidential election victory. “Bibi could have remained silent. He made a terrible mistake,” Trump said at the time in an interview with an Israeli newspaper.

The meeting with Trump came after a speech Netanyahu gave to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, July 24, in which the prime minister defended Israel’s right to continue its military operation in Gaza and sharply criticized US pro-Palestinian protesters. The next day, during White House talks with outgoing President Joe Biden and US Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival for the presidency, Netanyahu faced pressure from the Americans to cooperate with Washington to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible. A truce would help Harris garner the support of many voices in her electoral battle against Trump.

Immediately after arriving at Mar-a-Lago, in front of numerous reporters, Netanyahu presented Trump with a photograph of a child taken captive by Hamas militants in the early hours of the war. “We’ll take care of it,” Trump assured.

In a statement released after the talks, Trump promised to “work hard to bring peace to the Middle East” and fight anti-Semitism on college campuses if American voters elect him to the presidency in November.

According to the American press, “both Trump and Netanyahu have strong mutual interests.” For Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, the meeting could be an opportunity to boost Republican efforts to position themselves as the party most loyal to Israel. For Netanyahu, “it is essential to rebuild a personal relationship with Trump, who can return to the White House after the November elections.”

And to flesh out the talks with Trump, Netanyahu said that “Israel will soon send a negotiating team to Rome for ceasefire talks.”